Foursquare Wave: Six marketing opportunities that enterprises cannot miss

(This article is published in the September issue of "New Marketing": "Foursquare ' check-in ' marketing")

The most powerful Internet innovation model is not Google, Twitter or Facebook, which is a race to talk about a Groupon website and a mobile social networking service based on--foursquare. The latter is a hot star of tomorrow, in the current SNS war in the potential of the future. At the beginning of July, the number of Foursquare users successfully exceeded 2 million, and exploded, adding 100,000 users a week, but only 3 months before only 1 million of them.

Open up a position, instant, social mobile social network

Foursquare provides a location-based service (lbs,location Based services). Unlike traditional web media, Foursquare has chosen mobile devices such as smartphones as the core media for their application services, almost for Google's Android, Palm's webOS, Microsoft's Windows Mobile and rim

BlackBerry platform, such as all the mainstream smartphone platform. With this service, users can sign in to their location, post their location through popular social networking platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and share them with friends. Foursquare will be the user each "check-in", "speech" and "Tips" data one by one to make records and statistics, the more users to note the location, the higher the frequency of attendance at a site, the more points to obtain the corresponding level of badges (badget). 60 days the largest number of users, will become the merchant's "Mayor" (mayor), enjoy the concessions and discounts offered by merchants.

If Twitter provides real-time dynamic information for users, and Google is doing its utmost to improve its map services, and Facebook is dedicated to embracing the entire social network, then Foursquare offers a collection of three, which not only tells you what users "do Now", "where "And who are you with?" Unlike traditional SNS, which is not based on geographic information, Foursquare better integrate online interaction with offline experience, making online information more useful, fun, and commercially valuable. location-based services, the integration of social networks and the introduction of game elements, are the biggest features of Foursquare's innovative business model, which enhances the relevance of social networks to geography while creating a broader and more intimate link between users and the outside world. No wonder Foursquare describes himself as: 50% geo-Information logging tools, 30% social-sharing tools, and 20% gaming tools.

Estimated at nearly 100 million dollars SNS tomorrow star

This seemingly simple mobile social service model has become the object of many capital chasing. Whether location-based services, real-time information, local SNS, or the concept of mobile internet, let Foursquare quickly stand out. More than 4.6 billion people worldwide have mobile phones, more than 200 million people have smartphones, and the number is still growing rapidly, and mobile social services undoubtedly have a very broad market outlook. After talks with Facebook and Yahoo failed, the Foursquare successfully completed a new round of $20 million trillion in venture capital financing at the end of June, raising its own valuation to $95 million trillion, which was only 9 million dollars last September when the last round of financing Valuations Rose 10 times-fold in 9 months. Ben Horowitz, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz, who led the venture, is confident that Foursquare is expected to become a company valued at more than $1 billion trillion. "This is a model that both users and businesses love." Foursquare's profitability will be better than any other social networking product. "he said.

Businesses can attract more customers, consumers can get more concessions, which has aroused the interest of many enterprises. At present, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Zagat, Bravo TV, Starbucks and other more than 10,000 mainstream brands to become Foursquare business partners, hoping to build user loyalty and attract traffic. Because of the effective incentive mechanism and the interesting game mechanism, Foursquare has successfully stimulated the user's competitive nature, so that the players enjoy, thus greatly enhancing the user bonding degree. Since the opening of the Foursquare service, more than 725,000 mobile phone users have been signed in at nearly 2 million locations, with more than 22 million attendance times. Of these 2 million locations, about 1400 of the nearby businesses have a partnership with Foursquare.

6 marketing opportunities that businesses can't miss

Foursquare one night popular, nature attracts many domestic enterprises to imitate, play turn quartet, street, cubic nets, handle quartet, much fun, such as the Chinese version of the Bedouin Foursquare began to race. What are some of the marketing opportunities that companies can capture in the midst of this surge of mobile social services? Even if this service has not been effectively promoted in China, it is still the most worthy of our enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises to focus on the new marketing media, because as long as the good use, Foursquare may become the most effective enterprise customer information platform, Word-of-mouth communication platform, product promotion platform, experience marketing platform, Loyal customer training platform, even event marketing platform.

First, customer information platform. Who often walk through the door of their shop? What kind of careers do they have? What kind of spending habits do they have? How can we get them to patronize again? Perhaps Foursquare can help businesses answer these questions. Foursquare for local businesses to introduce consumer habits analysis tools to facilitate the business to view consumers daily travel and consumption habits. The more geographic information that Foursquare users share, the more knowledgeable they are about real customers and potential customers.

Whether the market segmentation, the choice of target market or brand positioning, the target customers to fully understand the premise. By the number of Foursquare on the network, the merchant can count each consumer's patronage frequency, differentiate customer grade, distinguish open high value customer and general customer, according to customer life cycle to different customer adopt corresponding marketing strategy, thus improve marketing effectiveness. At the same time, the merchant also can obtain the player to the product and the Service appraisal information, provides the decision support for the product development and the management, and adjusts and revises the marketing strategy according to the feedback result timely. In addition, the business can also through the signed user data, observe its presence of other businesses, so as to further understand their consumption needs and characteristics, on the basis of forecasting demand trends, assessment of changes in demand trend.

Second, Word-of-mouth communication platform. As a mobile social network, Foursquare is a bit like Twitter, merely changing the user's behavior from the 140-word message to its own location. In every place, users can easily sign in, record where they've been, and tell their location to Twitter and Facebook friends. If a friend is nearby, he will know immediately, can invite to chat together, can even date immediately. If you are interested in a stranger near your location, you can also add him as a friend immediately. In addition, can also be based on their own experience for this place to write some tips, and friends to share their feelings, of course, you can see other players on your location of the introduction and comments, to provide their own decision-making reference. It is the word of mouth between old and new friends, not only improve brand awareness, but also form a word-of-mouth communication.

Moreover, Foursquare users are usually those who dare to try the latest technology and become the first users of consumers, they are always willing to recommend a good to everyone, share with you, so that can affect the people around the consumption concept. Gladwell called it "individual characters" in the book "Tipping Point". Malcolm believes that, just as the outbreak of an epidemic requires three conditions, such as the environment required for the transmission of behaviour, infectious materials and their transmission, the detonation of a social tide also requires three conditions, which are called individual character rules, adhesion factors and environmental power laws. According to individual rules, some people are more important than others in the spread of social tides, and these people usually act as three kinds of roles: insiders, contacts and salesmen. The professionals are the databases that provide the information, the contacts are the binders, the information is spread around the world, and the salesman is in charge of the "last mile" to persuade people to accept the message. Foursquare heavy players often set three characters in a body.

Third, the product promotion platform. Foursquare not only can accumulate customer information, through social network to trigger Word-of-mouth spread, but also become the most convenient product promotion platform. When a user signs in to a site through Foursquare, he or she will see the promotional information offered by the site at the bottom of the screen and special services, and tell the user the necessary conditions for the concessions. When the user reaches the Foursquare, a special interface will appear and the waiter will be rewarded accordingly. July 6, Foursquare further launched the "Location layer" (location layers) function, users can log on to the site's "Tips" section to see About a site "tips." With this function, enterprises can send convenience information to users through the "Tips" function, so that Foursquare becomes a brand and commercial publishing platform.

Ann Taylor, the American women's apparel retailer, recently launched a promotional campaign for Foursquare users. Taylor Consumers only need to sign in five times at the company's 8 stores in New York, where they can get a 15% discount when they go shopping, and a maximum of 25% will be given to the store's "Mayor". If the promotional event is successful, Taylor will consider carrying out similar promotions indefinitely in all 279 stores across the United States.

Of course, businesses can also link traditional store promotions to Foursquare, by sending more potential customers via Twitter and Facebook. The Los Angeles coffee shop, Marsh Café, has posted notices outside its doors to attract customers, promising to sign up to Foursquare users to provide free drinks, and other Foursquare users who have signed up for a 2-dollar discount, which not only attracts past crowds, The promotion was also spread to a wider network community by Foursquare.

Four, experience marketing platform. The history of modern marketing, that is a brand differentiation in the breadth and depth of the expansion of history. With the advent of the experiential economic era, customer demand shifted from entity factors to emotional factors, from the bottom of Maslow hierarchy theory to higher levels (such as self-realization), cultivate good customer experience, develop experiential marketing, It becomes a new demand point for enterprises to implement brand differentiation strategy in the era of homogeneous competition. Products and technology can be imitated, positioning and image can be imitated, and even promotional strategies can be imitated, but the unique customer experience is not to imitate.

At the beginning of the year, the United States Bravo TV television and Foursquare a cooperation agreement to provide a unique experience for the audience, hoping that viewers will turn off the television or even stop watching the Bravo TV program can still interact with the TV program long after. Bravo's selection of a well-known American television program, including "Real Housewife", "Millionaire Marriage", and Foursquare users who visit more than 500 locations will be given badges and special rewards from Bravo. Reality show contestants posted their own itinerary on the Foursquare, while Foursquare users were also given a chance to get intimate contact with the idol. "Foursquare's influence is growing and becoming the mainstream of society, and we want to work with them," said Allen Stone, Bravo Senior marketing vice president. Our viewers are always longing for a new and unique experience, and this program is perfect for them. ”

Five, loyal customer platform. The success of a brand depends not on how many customers buy it, but on how many customers buy it regularly. The researchers found that the cost of maintaining an old customer is about 1/5 of the development of a new client, and that loyal customers will take the initiative to tell the people around them about their sales experience and attract them to join him in bringing more customers to the business. Although different industries, but as long as the customer transfer rate reduced by 5%, enterprises can increase the profit by 25%-85%. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, becoming a Foursquare partner is not only an effective way to increase customer patronage, but also greatly enhance customer loyalty to the store.

In early May, coffee chain brand Starbucks and Foursquare launched an experimental Foursquare loyalty program. All mobile phone users who sign up on a foursquare network near a Starbucks coffee shop can enjoy different levels of incentives offered by Starbucks. As long as you get a "mayor" title at any of the check-in points near Starbucks, users who buy coffee at any Starbucks can enjoy a 1 dollar discount, and they will receive a message like, "as the mayor of our store, you will be able to enjoy every cup of hot milk coffee for a dollar discount, size and taste." There is a deadline of June 28. ”

The event marketing platform. In addition to the usual product promotions, companies can also use Foursquare, the most dazzling network technology as a media, planning marketing events. Event marketing refers to the enterprise through the planning of celebrity, news value and social impact of events, to attract the media, the public and consumers curiosity and attention, so as to improve the visibility of enterprises or products, reputation, establish brand image, and ultimately promote product or service sales growth of marketing methods. Compared with the traditional advertising and product promotion investment, the event marketing because of its social influence, can quickly upgrade new products or brand awareness, high return on investment, often reach 42 of the magic effect of the weight, and more and more people welcome.

Miracle Mile Shop, a shopping center in downtown Las Vegas, attracts people to patronize by showing the most-visited Foursquare users on its large screen and their comments on the mall. Because there are always other people to contend with, users must sign in more times to maintain their original position in order to continue to appear on the big screen. In addition, unlike the common Foursquare market titles competing for games, because the winners will appear on the big screen in public places, the activity not only attracts the competition among Foursquare users, but also draws in the passing consumers of non-users. Extend promotional effects beyond Foursquare users. For this new way of promotion, people are very curious, eager to pay attention to and talk about the latest on the big screen who is who, he made how to comment on, and then become the focus of the street lane.

How to give full play to the unique advantages of Foursquare in accordance with the characteristics of the enterprise, the traditional marketing means and the most popular social network tool effectively combined, will be every business and marketing personnel should consider the subject. Believe that with the rapid growth of Foursquare, enterprises, especially entities operating various types of businesses, can be used more marketing opportunities will be more and more. Just like Groupon Online group buying mode, any can help enterprises to understand more customers, attract more customers to patronize, are welcome marketing tools, not to mention is the popularity of the SNS star. If you can graft on the originality of creative marketing, even if the activity itself can become a hot topic to talk about, develop into a hit marketing events. For example, businesses can use Foursquare to develop good cause marketing, commitment for each to the store to sign the user to provide public interest score, once all the total score reached a certain number of businesses to complete the designated public donations, so as to attract more customers, promote sales growth, but also through public service activities for brand promotion, The promotion of brand image, is a kill both birds.

"Today's whispers" read Steven often

August book purchase, the biggest harvest to buy Zhang Wuchang's "economic interpretation." It was first introduced in mainland China and was revised in 2010. Although only the first volume, but presumably from the two volumes of the publication is not far away. Undoubtedly this will be the second half of the biggest expectations.

Zhang Wuchang first, or that year in Hangzhou. I do not know where to hear this name, then go online to collect his words, accidentally found this "economic interpretation." Sight, this just know that the original economics can also write, professional text can be so beautiful, even before Reading Samuelson's book, has been for its scattered culture language surprised once. It is increasingly felt that, with the sit of the well-organized text presumably, slightly personalized text instead of reading more cordial, even with some personal preferences and prejudices, is much more interesting.

Carefully organized, to the school outside the copy shop printed out, bound into a book, as a beloved baby. Put in the bag, every day to take time to read a few pages, and later become a home on the train for leisure reading. On the basis of my economics, nature is a smattering of knowledge, almost as a prose to read, but the resulting good feeling is to continue to this day, has become my professional writing on a beacon. Let me know, no matter how complicated the truth, should be in a simple language to explain, categorically not knowledgeable. If you are not clear, you are probably not thinking thoroughly.

And then from the special bookstore to Amoy his "with an aperture set." It was a compilation of columns for "one weekly" and a small talk about economics. Photography, calligraphy, art, poetry. Also unsanitary. Especially when he was studying at Columbia University, Ai Zhiren, Heshula, and three teachers, became my best imagination on the university campus. That's the real "both of them". Every once in a while, he took it out of the bookcase and went over it, reliving the golden years.

When he asked him why he had listened to him repeatedly and repeatedly, Zhang Wuchang's answer benefited me greatly: "Your economic theory I have learned from your writings, I do not listen to your class to learn your economics, but to learn your thinking method." "Think of the three years in Zhejiang University, perhaps most of the harvest from this, and the undergraduate four years of nothing is missing this layer."

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From Jiansho Qing's blog "Marketing and Life | About marketing that little news" [http://www.marketing-life.cn]